Background of Shelley Beattie

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Shelley Beattie Shelley Beattie was born on August 24, 1967 in Santa Ana, California to Laura Mitchell and Jack Beattie. She went deaf after accidently swallowing a bottle of aspirin at the age of three. She became deaf in one ear and partially in the other. She didn’t think her deafness was a disabililty. No one knew she was deaf until she was in the sixth grade. She moved to Oregon when she was 11, where her experience was troubled due to her hearing deficiency. She had trouble socializing and became a loner. She used sports to deal with her frustrations. She competed in Heptathlon, cross country, hurdles, and field events where she excelled. She started weight lifting at 14 to be more competitive in the hurdles and 400s, so she could compete against her male track mates since her female track mates weren’t competitive enough. Lifting was also a way to rebel against the other girls. She knew that they would look differently at her if her body looked differently. She started training in a small weight room at high school and began to seriously follow a strict training regime at 15. At 16 she suffered a severe track accident where she twisted her ankle. She thought she wouldn’t be able to compete again due to the trauma of the injury. Her family life at home was instable which added to her anxiety and frustration and caused many personal problems. To deal with her problems, she focused more on her training and wrote songs. She even became the lead singer of a traveling band while in high school. In 1984, She began to attend Western Oregon State College in Monmouth. She decided to focus on weight training and powerlifting to make her body stronger and deal with her emotional problems. She majored in Child Psychology, Special Education, and jazz dance. She entered her first competition, the Portland Rose Cup Novice, finishing in fourth. After this competition,

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